News Blog
Our top news picks from February:
The fossil fuel and chemical sectors have reason to feel emboldened by the flurry of executive orders under the new administration. Adding to the failure of a Global Plastic Treaty in 2024, the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, and IRA funding freezes, lays a path for expansion of fossil fuel extraction and increased plastic production and pollution.
Consumers who don’t want to see plastic littering their surroundings will continue to be a driving force behind corporate action to address plastic pollution. While the tailwinds of international policy may subside during the new administration, individual states march on with EPR legislation to support corporate action and address consumer demand. We expect the petchem industry will continue to build out its portfolio of recycled and sustainable materials to capture the economic opportunity.
California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act of 2024 is the nation’s first EPR scheme to target textiles, with the aim to reduce waste and increase repair, reuse, and recycling. The law targets apparel and textile articles, shifting the responsibility to address waste in the industry to the manufacturers putting these articles on the California market. With the law slated to become effective in 2026, and violators facing penalties starting at $10,000 per day, manufacturers will need to quickly develop plans to manage waste materials across their value chain.
With textile waste growing at 80% by weight and only 15% of clothing being recycled or reused in the U.S., producers are poised to see more EPR legislation in the coming years. New York is likely to pass a similar bill that was proposed in 2023 as are the UK and EU where legislation proposed in 2024 is progressing. With the European Council’s adoption of the latest EPR rules on packaging and packaging waste in December 2024, we see significant momentum behind EPR schemes.
The partnership aims to recycle cobalt, nickel, and lithium from used batteries in Europe to produce new batteries for BMW vehicles. Singapore-based SK tes – a sustainable technology lifecycle management company – claims it can recover up to 99% of materials from used batteries. A similar partnership was announced last year with U.S.-based Redwood Materials.
The growth of electric vehicles is expected to drive a supply-demand gap by 2030 across multiple battery materials, making battery recycling both imperative – especially to reduce dependence on raw material extraction from other regions – and economically attractive. The automotive industry will look to digital traceability to make critical supply chains more resilient and sustainable.
This World Economic Forum (WEF) report looks at the challenges and opportunities associated with the rising demand for electric vehicle batteries, projected to increase nearly nine-fold by 2050 vs. 2023. It calls for increased transparency across the full battery value chain, from sourcing minerals to managing battery end-of-life (EOL). A separate WEF publication released this month on the future of mining and metals highlights the crucial role that recycling of critical battery minerals will play in supplying demand (up to 30%) by 2040.
As automotive manufacturers strive to meet oncoming and increasing regulations, such as the EU’s Batteries Regulation and (end-of-life vehicles) ELV Directive, Circular’s digital platform will expand to help OEMs source multiple sustainable materials.
February 4, 2025
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Welcome to the February edition of Circular’s newsletter. Read our take on what’s happening in the recycling industry today and our own internal company news.
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